Everett Docklands Innovation District | 52 Beacham Street | Everett

stick n move said:
So I could be wrong but judging by the render and going off of basically every other neighborhood redevelopment project it seems like they want to add a lot of lab/office space. For the extent of the housing crisis that were in all of these different redevelopments seem to have huge amounts of planned lab space compared to housing. Whether at suffolk downs, dot ave in southie, harbor point, assembly, cambridge crossing, fenway center, union point, boynton yards, kendall/volpe, allston yards, beacon yards, enterprise research campus, arsenal yards/watertown mall, riverside, alewife…etc. it seems that labs are the main priority and housing fits in where theres room left over.

Now that were nearing the peak of the lab boom but are still very much deep in the housing crisis shouldnt we be tweaking the ratio of these projects? Boston seems pretty full and like theres not a lot of room to add much housing, but then when you look at all of the redevelopment areas mentioned above thats an absolutely enormous amount of land to be redeveloped. If that was all used strictly for housing I wouldnt be surprised if you could add 100,000 new units combined across all the different areas. Even half of that would be a massive relief. If labs are oversaturated right now and theres super high demand for housing why arent we building some of these new developments as 100% or majority housing? It seems like it would be a no brainer.
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Hopefully, with all those factors, added in with decreasing interest rates soon (watching the Fed starting next month), progress on this fundamentally important goal can begin in earnest soon. The interest rate scenario seems to be the only missing piece at this point.
 
stick n move said:
So I could be wrong but judging by the render and going off of basically every other neighborhood redevelopment project it seems like they want to add a lot of lab/office space. For the extent of the housing crisis that were in all of these different redevelopments seem to have huge amounts of planned lab space compared to housing. Whether at suffolk downs, dot ave in southie, harbor point, assembly, cambridge crossing, fenway center, union point, boynton yards, kendall/volpe, allston yards, beacon yards, enterprise research campus, arsenal yards/watertown mall, riverside, alewife…etc. it seems that labs are the main priority and housing fits in where theres room left over.

Now that were nearing the peak of the lab boom but are still very much deep in the housing crisis shouldnt we be tweaking the ratio of these projects? Boston seems pretty full and like theres not a lot of room to add much housing, but then when you look at all of the redevelopment areas mentioned above thats an absolutely enormous amount of land to be redeveloped. If that was all used strictly for housing I wouldnt be surprised if you could add 100,000 new units combined across all the different areas. Even half of that would be a massive relief. If labs are oversaturated right now and theres super high demand for housing why arent we building some of these new developments as 100% or majority housing? It seems like it would be a no brainer.
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The respective cities should enact zoning of these parcels to mandate residential, at least on major portions of the development sites. That would require some political courage and foresight.
 
Whatever that "rendering" shows, I'd be very surprised to see any large new spec projects for office/lab for the forseeable future. Even if a developer was bold enough to try, good luck finding a lender that's willing to finance it after they scan our latest vacancy rates.
 
As some folks already mentioned, I gather in saying there is no value in preserving those Tanks at all, just for the sake of imitating/applying a solution done overseas that provably had different historic context. My main concern is all about the site CLEAN UP & PREP for the new use, given its prior Petro-chemical use.
 
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The latest “Everett Docklands Innovation District” concept, per Banker & Tradesman.

The thing that looks like a nuclear fuel storage site in the center-left is (presumably) actually the big Jupiter Energy battery-based energy storage facility they announced a while back.

Apparently before we get anything concrete, the city needs to pass two big zoning changes, but the planning board is reviewing the ideas this fall: https://bankerandtradesman.com/davis-cos-unveils-docklands-innovation-district-plan-for-everett/


Docklands.png
 
Aprehensive_Words said:
The latest “Everett Docklands Innovation District” concept, per Banker & Tradesman.

The thing that looks like a nuclear fuel storage site in the center-left is (presumably) actually the big Jupiter Energy battery-based energy storage facility they announced a while back.

Apparently before we get anything concrete, the city needs to pass two big zoning changes, but the planning board is reviewing the ideas this fall: https://bankerandtradesman.com/davis-cos-unveils-docklands-innovation-district-plan-for-everett/


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^^^ This is Jupiter's lithium battery storage facility in Harris County Texas (Houston).

In the rendering, the two white, domed structures are existing and related to natural gas storage.

The lithium battery storage, based on the Harris County photo, looks to be a long, open-area rectangle with rows of small, white blocks at the center of the rendering.

Typically, a used nuclear fuel storage site is cylindrical without a dome.
MNS-DSC_7794_hero.jpg
 
stellarfun said:
66c6620ff2275f94e012e0a8_Callisto%20I%20photo.png


^^^ This is Jupiter's lithium battery storage facility in Harris County Texas (Houston).

In the rendering, the two white, domed structures are existing and related to natural gas storage.

The lithium battery storage, based on the Harris County photo, looks to be a long, open-area rectangle with rows of small, white blocks at the center of the rendering.

Typically, a used nuclear fuel storage site is cylindrical without a dome.
MNS-DSC_7794_hero.jpg
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I hope this facility comes to fruition and does not become the next 5G issue for some folks. Clean off shore energy is here and battery storage is really needed.


"Part of the reason solar and wind generation is creating such inefficiencies is a lack of battery technology to store the produced electricity. That means that consumers may not even be benefitting from lower day-ahead prices, as they often consume more energy in non-solar hours, SEB said.

The research cautioned that suppressed pricing could eventually pull back investment in solar infrastructure. Solar prices would instead benefit if more funding was channeled towards batteries and the grid, it said."

The LNG facility eventually became the norm, lets hope this is given a chance.
Link-Battery storage
 
The new MEPA filing for this project's first phase (that Jupiter battery energy storage facility) has some new topline numbers about how big the project will be.

The whole file is over 30 MB, but you can find it here if you look for "Everett Docklands," as The Davis Cos. is branding the development: https://eeaonline.eea.state.ma.us/EEA/MEPA-eMonitor/search

(Also, hi! 👋 We've been lurkers here for a while)
  • 7.2 million square feet overall
  • 3.3 million square feet of lab and/or office space
  • 2.8 million square feet of multifamily space, or about 3,200 homes
  • 400,000 square feet of industrial space
  • 400,000 square feet of manufacturing space
  • 240,000 square feet of retail space
And, pretty notable for skyline enthusiasts: Maximum proposed building heights are 370 feet, or roughly 37 stories.

There's also this street grid:

Screenshot 2024-08-27 151815.png
 
@stellarfun, would you mind changing the thread title to reflect the development's name, now that it has one? "Everett Docklands | 52 Beacham Street | Everett"
 
Equilibria said:
Judging by the date on this thread, seems like 14 years :) https://archboston.com/community/threads/re-posting-of-banker-tradesman-articles.3632/
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Hah. Yes, like every news outlet with a paywall, the four of us really do rely on subscribers to put food on the table.

But that said, we did recently update our paywall so that everyone gets 3 free stories per month (the counter resets at the end of each month), and we've made our daily newsletter free (link in our signature), so it's easier to read our stuff than it was 14 years ago. And we'll share some elements from our reporting here, too.
 
Banker & Tradesman said:
Hah. Yes, like every news outlet with a paywall, the four of us really do rely on subscribers to put food on the table.

But that said, we did recently update our paywall so that everyone gets 3 free stories per month (the counter resets at the end of each month), and we've made our daily newsletter free (link in our signature), so it's easier to read our stuff than it was 14 years ago. And we'll share some elements from our reporting here, too.
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Awesome!
 
The first phase of this project vaulted a key hurdle this week: fast-track approval from state environmental regulators for its first phase (the battery-based energy storage facility).

The battery-based energy storage site is the first phase of a 7.2 million mixed-use project, dubbed “Everett Docklands Innovation District” by its developer. The Texas energy company plans to construct a pair of open-air substations totaling 2.1 acres to gather and discharge electricity from renewable sources such as offshore wind.

Jupiter has sought to begin construction in 2026 and complete the facility in 2027.
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bankerandtradesman.com

State Backs $500M 'Everett Docklands' Energy Storage Project

The $500 million energy storage project proposed in the first phase of The Davis Companies' Everett Docklands project got a key approval.
bankerandtradesman.com bankerandtradesman.com
 
I'm wondering why this location was chosen for battery storage. There's no need for proximity to the harbor. Is this really the highest and best use for this property?
 
NHMaples said:
I'm wondering why this location was chosen for battery storage. There's no need for proximity to the harbor. Is this really the highest and best use for this property?
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Not so much proximity to the harbor, but proximity to the former Exelon / Mystic Generating Station, and therefore its substation and existing power infrastructure. You need to be able to "inject" the power into the grid, and old power plants is where that infrastructure is. Similarly, Merrimack and Schiller Stations up in NH are getting BESS systems largely thanks to the infrastructure built for the prior power plants. Besides, BESS systems are modular things - they literally come in shipping container modules. If a better use comes along in the future, it wouldn't be a huge production to pick them up.
 
Stlin said:
Not so much proximity to the harbor, but proximity to the former Exelon / Mystic Generating Station, and therefore its substation and existing power infrastructure. You need to be able to "inject" the power into the grid, and old power plants is where that infrastructure is. Similarly, Merrimack and Schiller Stations up in NH are getting BESS systems largely thanks to the infrastructure built for the prior power plants. Besides, BESS systems are modular things - they literally come in shipping container modules. If a better use comes along in the future, it wouldn't be a huge production to pick them up.
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Exactly, the electric grid radiates out from existing and former generation sites.

Same reason why offshore wind power is brought onshore at former coastal generation sites -- it is where the highest capacity grid interconnects live.
 
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